SSN-21 Sea Wolf submarine hull cracking problem

Brief closing reference: Captain Millard Firebaugh (a graduate of MIT's program) was designing the SSN-21 in the mid-1980s when Congress zeroed the next year's budget, saying they wouldn't build another steel sub while the Soviets had titanium subs — and that the U.S. should leapfrog to composite submarines. Tom mentions attending a four-day workshop on composite subs which he calls "a laughing mess." Setup for a future lecture.

In the end, the U.S. Navy was right to be as cautious as they were. You could build one titanium sub for ten steel subs, so you have to ask yourself, would you rather have ten steel subs or one titanium sub? There are little trade-offs like that. Anyway, the Navy decided not to build titanium subs. Congress was livid that the Soviets had leapfrogged us. I can tell you other stories over the next five years about how Congress took away all the money for the SSN-21 when Millard Firebaugh was Captain — he was a graduate of your program — but he was designing the SSN-21 in the mid-1980s, and Congress zeroed his budget for the next year. They said, we will not build another steel submarine while the Soviets have titanium submarines, and we don't even want to build titanium submarines — we want to leapfrog, we want to build composite submarines. I went to a four-day workshop on that, and that was a laughing mess. Anyway, we'll see you tomorrow.